My understanding is the key is to keep separate bank accounts and financial transactions.

You can do a subject to transaction but that is not legally assuming the loan.the banks got rid of assumable mortgage long time ago. 

You can get the cashier's check and do any other banking transactions from the convenience of your home office or mobile device without ever going to the branch with any of these banks. 

If a bank sells a note to Dion at 87K, they know he's in the business of selling, he sells for 95K to someone else, that is an arm's length transaction, the borrower had nothing to do with it.

The gist of it is that when you dispose of your entire interest in a passive activity in a fully taxable (as opposed to a tax-deferred) transaction to a non-related party, i.e., selling a non-grouped rental property in a taxable sale to a non-related party, both current and suspended passive activity losses generated by that activity can be deducted. 

Tips or tricks that would help make transactions go smoother.

If this is how it works, do I ever go through the title company like I would in a normal wholesale transaction?

The location you're referencing will likely require substantial rehab capital.There may be some out of state investor who hears NC and throws their money at a portfolio, but this feels like it'd need to be cash transaction.

Don't know about anyone else, but I feel like my personal daily battle is between doing what is urgent and fuels my raging undiagnosed ADHD, or what is actually important.I've done a ton of work on this over the past almost 4 years, and still am nowhere that I think I need to be, but I'm at least getting to a level of awareness I don't think I ever had before and that is a win in my book.  

My go to for lowest hassles, taxes and  transaction costs are Lease Options or selling directly to the renters.